The Brooklyn-based shoegaze-punks (non derogatory) break down the band's almost decade-long career and each track on their new album, fix your heart.
better living. is every writer’s worst nightmare, in the sense that you have to write and rewrite their name four thousand times before autocorrect stops trying to make you capitalize and punctuate it “correctly.” Good fuckin’ grief. Thankfully, however, better living. is worth this minor inconvenience.
Before a couple months ago, I’d only heard of the band in passing, until my friends in Gum played their (allegedly) final show opening for better living. at EWEL. Despite the fact that I encouraged everyone to surround the bands as they played, thus leaving the spot even more of a fire hazard than usual, they absolutely killed it and have since become one of my favorite local bands.
It’d be easy to categorize them as another one of those shoegaze-by-punks bands, but as someone who practically rips his hair out every time a post-Title Fight carbon copy comes along, I think that’s selling them short. Bbetter living. (Aautocorrect did it again just now) brings the heat and they write good, impassioned songs to show for it.
A couple weeks ago, bossman himself told me we would be premiering their new album, fix your heart, on bandNada, and I flipped tables faster than Jesus in the temple. This is the kind of record you wish your friends wrote, and that you wish you could write. 10 tracks of furiously vulnerable release expressing frontperson Gavin Siebrass’ internal monologues on gender, broken friendships, and corporate social media (which bandNada also officially hates) make this one of the best local records I’ve heard all year. It doesn’t even bug me that my label released an album with basically the same title five years ago.
The record came out last Friday via We’re Trying Records (Awful Din, Career Day), and TOMORROW, August 14th, the band kicks off a tour with no good secrets at The Sultan Room. So I thought I’d sit Gavin down and punish them about better living., every track on the new album, and try to start some beef between them and A Very Special Episode.
The last better living. show at Econo was one of the best shows I've been to in my years of working there. When and how did the band start? I can’t believe it took me this long to hear you.
It started as a solo project a long time ago. The first technical release, that I later scrapped, was an album I made in 2018. In 2019, we put out an EP as a two-piece, just me and Greg [Klepczyk, drums] at that time. Then we brought on Sam [Gaylert] on bass, who plays guitar for us now, and played a couple of shows before the world shut down [in 2020].
When stuff was starting back up, we brought on Jorge [B-R] on bass and moved Sam over to guitar because he was kind of doing a thing where he played guitar and bass. Then we became a four piece, wrote a bunch of stuff together, and that was the first record [2023’s crush]. Then we made this record. Jorge left, Tory [Casey, Bass] took his place. But Jorge was the one on the record.
Tory is a great addition to the band, as they were also part of the west-US DIY punk scene 10 years ago and we share some friend circles and interests from that. Speaking of punk, I noticed your music mirrors traditional hardcore a lot in how you structure songs. Are you aware of that?
Yeah, my background is very DIY punk focused. It’s not necessarily exclusive to hardcore, because I think I picked up a lot from grunge and stuff from the 90s. But when I was first really getting into music as a kid, I exclusively listened to 80s hardcore and 70s punk—Ramones and shit. If it wasn't that, I absolutely refused to listen to it, because I thought that that was the only real music out there. [Laughs] It's part of my DNA.
Punk, as defined by Scooby Doo's Matthew Lillard and I Love You, Man's Jason Segel in 1998
You [engineered] almost all of fix your heart, right?
Everything besides drums, which were recorded with Jack [Dougherty] who mixed the record. Him and I… Well, “co engineer” is kind of a strong word, because he had everything mostly set up, but there were a couple extra mics I wanted to put in there and whatnot. But everything else—Guitars, bass, vocals—I did all that.
What's your recording background?
When my high school band broke up, I still wanted to make music, so I just started figuring out how to record. I had a pirated version of ProTools that I didn't understand at all, [Laughs], one USB mic, and watched a bunch of videos.
I slowly built out a gear collection to get some really good sounds. I don't have, like, a shit ton of recording equipment, but every piece that I have? I make sure it does exactly what I want it to.
That makes sense, because the record sounds like it’s produced intentionally. It reminds me of the first time I heard Cosmic Thrill Seekers - Like, the [production bells and whistles] sound amazing, but it still sounds like it comes from people I could know.
I take a lot from the [Franco, maybe] Albini school of recording. Like, how do you make the band sound accurately like they do in the room?
fix your heart was put out by We’re Trying Records. How did you get hooked up with them?
A bunch of our friends—Haunt Dog, or Career Day, for instance—had done stuff with Jordan [Hiebner, owner] before. He was one of the people that we shot over the record to, and he was down! He's making some tapes and CDs for it. He's been really good in terms of helping us get on playlists and things like that. He does a lot of good PR work in that way. It’s very supportive.
Forgive me for asking, because I think I know, but where does the title fix your heart come from?
That's a quote from Twin Peaks: The Return. Gordon Cole, David Lynch's character, says that about Denise—David Duchovny’s character—a trans woman who transitioned in the FBI. [Lynch] is telling everybody in the FBI to “fix your hearts or die.”
Are you aware of the band A Very Special Episode’s album, *Fix Your Hearts or Die?*
They were there the first time we played the Econolodge. [The similar name is] not intentional, but it's coming from the same place.
Fuck it. We're gonna make the better living. versus AVSE Fix Your Heart-off happen at the Lodge.
[Laughs]
Who did the artwork for your album?
Our work is done by my fiancé, Ash Doukas, and it’s an actual painting here in my home. They do all of our art direction and stuff, besides that first EP. That was me, and that’s why it looks like shit. [Laughs] They kill it every single time.
Track-by-Track
the opener
This intro is ferocious. It reminds me of “Only Shallow” [by My Bloody Valentine]. I’m personally very picky with intros and outros. What led you to putting one here?
I have a couple schools of thought on how an album should open, but I don't think the first song should ever be the single.
Why?
Because that means you start in with something that’s already been heard. On our first record, the first song was one of our favorite songs to play and one of the ones that went over best live, but the second song was the single. On this [album], the intro track leads into the single, but there's still something new and interesting that the listener hears first.
the light
Before our call, you had mentioned many of these songs struggle with the concept of gender identity. Am I correct in assuming this is one of those?
Absolutely. I wrote that when I was in the process of, or shortly after, realizing that I'm non-binary. I didn't really have the vernacular for that before. Learning that there's a word that describes how I've always felt was very important to me.
The guitar introduction on this one is very Bloc Party to me.
For us, it came a little bit more from Interpol - the two guitars talking back and forth. When we [wrote] the song instrumentally, we didn't plan to make a song that day. We tried to open a set with "danny devito" [from the last LP] and it went over like a lead balloon. [Laughs] So we were like, “we’ve got to figure out something new to open sets with,” and that ended up being “the light.”
sling
This also seems to touch on the idea of masculinity complexes.
Yeah. So that song is reaching out to anybody in a similar place with masculinity. It’s like, you know, I can't teach you how to be a man—Those expectations, what that means. The song is for anybody that might be going through something like that or having a hard time finding their place. The main theme of that song is that you can lean on me, I'll be your sling. I can't necessarily be there for you in all the ways that you may need me to, but I can certainly try, and we can all get through this together.
Did you feel pressured into performing masculinity growing up?
100%. There are parts of me that are more masculine or interests that lie in that direction, but it always felt like I was being told I couldn't do things I wanted to because they weren’t manly enough, then pretending to be somebody that someone else wanted me to be. I feel like so much [masculinity] is performative, [even for some people] that identify as men. Putting on some kind of strange front so other people think of you that way? It's like, what are you gaining from this, man? Just be yourself.
atracotoxin
What on earth is atracotoxin?
That is the venom of the most poisonous spider in the world—in Australia.
Do you do a lot of researching when you write your lyrics?
Sometimes. I read a lot, so I have a notes app full of random concepts or words, and sometimes I'll come back to those. I think that's how “atrocotoxin” ended up being the title—I was reading some shit randomly and then I had like the line I wrote about a spider. So I put that as the title.
Since I started interviewing artists again last year, I’ve noticed a commonality amongst great lyricists is that they’re avid readers or movie fans.
I pull from both. I just watched this video interview the other day with Karly Hartzman from Wednesday. She's a phenomenal lyricist and her stuff is all storytelling. She was saying that any songwriter that takes their craft seriously needs to be reading, and I think that is so true in terms of what people write about and how they structure sentences and ideas. You have to read how other people write.
In the last couple of years, I’ve actively made an effort to watch more films and seek out what people say are the “best” ones—you know, the “critical” ones and foreign films. You get new ideas and think about things and visuals that you wouldn't on your own.
Actual footage of David Letterman endorsing the new better living. CD on the Late Show With David Letterman in 2008
king in yellow
This is the first of two spoken word songs on the record, the other being “panopticon.” What are you pulling from on this first one?
So there's a collection of short stories by [Robert W. Chambers called] The King in Yellow, which inspired how H.P. Lovecraft came up with the cosmic horror genre. [Conceptually], “The King in Yellow” is this play, and if you read to the second act, you lose your fucking mind. It makes you go insane. There’s one particular short story lifting from where this guy is in his study painting a model. They end up reading [“The King in Yellow”] and go crazy. He ends up, basically, dying, in a way.
Then, I threw in a lot of characters and dialogue from Inland Empire. [In the movie] they're trying to make a film that leads to all this other crazy stuff, and it's kind of a cursed film, [just like “The King in Yellow” is] a cursed play. It’s the idea of media driving you insane. It’s fairly abstract, but I ended up writing a short story and then taking a couple other things from the poems that were in The King In Yellow. So there's a lot of references to that and Inland Empire. I think I threw in a little Twin Peaks, too. We were really shooting for a Slint thing [musically].
lower case with a period.
I really love this one. It’s a good mix of all the stuff we’re doing. “lowercase, with a period.” is how you spell our name. I have to tell people all the time, “No capital ‘B.’” [laughs] “‘Better living’ lowercase, then period.” So I figured I'd call a song that.
This one gave me major “On a Plain” by Nirvana vibes at first, but then it goes into that fast punk drum beat I love so much.
I wrote this hardcore riff inspired by Spy and some of the newer-gen hardcore bands. Sam threw this Queens of the Stone Age-ass lead in it, we added that bridge in there, and I kind of went for more of a desert rock thing. I had it pretty mid-tempo—a little bit darker, slower. And Sam just kept being like…
“It's gotta be faster.”
“Not fast enough yet.” “Nope, not fast enough.” Then, fucking breakneck speed! We like that one. It feels like a spiritual follow up to “danny devito.” I was like, “we need another straight up fucking punk banger.”
nightime dan spins discs for money
There is a YouTube collective called Watcher. They do a thing called “Ghost Files”—like, ghost hunt shit, right? There was one time they were using this spirit box type thing and that says phrases like that. It was literally like, “Nighttime Dan,” then, “spins discs for money.” So they're like, “is this ghost a fucking DJ?” I have a hard time titling things, so I was like, “that's funny. We'll do the really long title.”
The lyric, “I hope you choke so I never hear your voice again” is some Long Island-ass shit. Before our call, you had mentioned via text that part of this record is about a friend breakup. Is this one of those songs?
There are a handful of songs [about that]. I feel like it’s fairly clear, because they are, you know, quite mean spirited. There’s a lot of vitriol in this song, for sure. [Laughs] Making these songs was a very important piece of the healing process for dealing with that.
panopticon
The panopticon is a concept for a prison where the prisoners can be viewed at any time. It’s almost like a lighthouse thing. It doesn't actually exist, but it was a concept that was floated. And the essential theme on this song is that the internet has become like the panopticon. Everything is being monitored.
The internet used to be really fucking cool. Now it really, really sucks.
again
The hook on this one is great.
I just wanted to make, like, a really cool punk/shoegaze song.
That describes better living.’s overall sound pretty well. Not that it's only punk/shoegaze, but I think that that's a good way to think about your band.
I was basically thinking MBV meets Title Fight. I was trying to put in a really big shoegaze guitar but have a more driving and melodic thing to it.
the closer
What came first, the lyrics or the title?
It was kind of at the same time! This one's more on the friend-breakup side of things. I wrote it on Christmas Eve or Christmas shortly after this [event] happened, so I was feeling this one the hardest when writing it. I had an acoustic guitar and was like, “yeah, this is how it's going to end. It's the closer.” I think we had the closer before we had the opener. [Laughs]
What's the sound byte at the end?
Sam, our guitarist, thought it needed a spoken word part, so he just launched in and did it. The beginning of the album starts with this Lossy pedal, which is that digital kind of distortion noise on the opener. We were trying to do that again but with Sam's recorded vocals. We were trying to put it through something [else], and it ended up coming through this amp in another room and we were like, “actually, that's really cool.” So the sound that you’re hearing is the recording of the recording going through the amp. That's why it's broken up and hard to hear. Funny.
better living. left to right: Sam Gaylert, Tory Casey, Gavin Siebrass, Greg Klepczyk
fix your heart is out now via We’re Trying, and I’m trying to get you to go to better living.’s tour kick off on Friday at Sultan Room. Check out the details here, listen to the record on bandNada, buy the album at the show, and tell your friends to go see them on tour.
